I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
---------Henry David Thoreau

Thursday, December 18, 2014

The Return of Crowded On A Velvet Cushion Book of the Year Award

If you searched for my previous blog site (Crowded On A Velvet Cushion,) you probably came up with the blog site of a company that sells cushions...possibly even velvet cushions. My previous blog had about 50,000 hits in its brief history of about two and a half years. Then technology happened and my blog site became someone else's blog site...it now belonged to the above mentioned commercial cushion company.

I was at a loss. I had no idea what to do. Eventually, the cushion company gave up ownership to the name Crowded On A Velvet Cushion, and I was offered the opportunity to bid on the rights to the name (which I had stolen from a book by Henry David Thoreau entitled "Walden" of which you may have heard.)

But Crime Doesn't Pay! So, since I had stolen Thoreau's words, that made me a criminal and I refused to pay. What then to do?

I won't bore you. Long story short...I'm back.

And if technology happens again I'll be back with "Crowded On A Velvet Cushion Part 3" etc. etc. etc. I'll never run out of numbers.

You all enjoyed my 'book of the year' awards. Recipients have included some famous names and several authors have gratefully accepted my awards of approximately one hundred bucks. If I were a rich man I would have given more.

On a curious note: the famous writers readily accepted my meagre awards but a collection of little-known writers never bothered to contact me to accept their awards. All those who accepted their awards were European. All those writers who did not accept their awards were my fellow Americans. Probably just a coincidence.

Well, I won't hold you in suspense. This year's winner of the COAVC Book of the Year award is Philip Daley...an American. His winning book is "Welcome To The Divide."

You have likely never heard of Mr. Daley or heard of his book. Well let me assure you it is a worthy recipient of this prestigious award. I kid you not. I doubt if more than a hundred people have read the book. I came across the book quite by accident. I loved it and I am now reading it a second time. I like it even more the second time around.

If you are a book collector (I used to collect first editions) I recommend that you buy this author's book. A first edition of "Welcome To The Divide" is a super investment. At this time I think it costs less than twenty bucks; but you can store it in your attic and your grandkids will find it one day and bless you forever! It will be worth gazillions. At least.

If you own a kindle you can read a sample for free from Amazon. The sample is so freaking long that you are in for a real treat with just reading the free sample. But the printed book is the one to buy. Mr. Daley makes use of some printing techniques in the printed book which do not carry over into the kindle transformation.

Welcome To The Divide is not War & Peace. And Philip Daley is not Leo Tolstoy. But in my opinion Welcome To The Divide is perhaps "V" by Thomas Pynchon, or "Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut...not in so much as 'content' goes, but in originality, intelligence, humor and style. And as for content, it is deep and rich. It will make you wonder.

Hey, if the author is a typical American he won't bother contacting me for his hundred dollars, and I'll bet it on a horse in the 2015 Kentucky Derby. That's what I did with the other award money. Maybe this time my horse will win!

I hope all you readers of my previous blog: "Crowded On A Velvet Cushion" find me at this new site, and I hope you are all well.